The Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS | Paris Cité University) is proud to announce that Stéphane Peyrégne, team leader at the institute, is the winner of the 2025 Georges Brahms Prize awarded by the CNRS Foundation!
© Crédit photo : Marie Origas – CNRS Biologie
Portrait of Stéphane Peyrégne by CNRS Biology and the CNRS Foundation
“A former student of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Stéphane Peyrégne obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology under the supervision of Kay Prüfer and Svante Pääbo (Nobel Prize winner in 2022). There, he identified key genetic changes surrounding the origin of modern humans and traced the history of Neanderthals who lived 120,000 years ago. After a postdoctoral fellowship with Benjamin Peter, during which he highlighted ancient interbreeding between our ancestors and Neanderthals, he continued his work with Janet Kelso to reconstruct new Denisovan genomes. Recruited by the CNRS in 2025, he founded a team at the Institut Jacques Monod supported by the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale.
Thanks to advances in the extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA preserved in fossil remains, it is now possible to reconstruct the genomes of our ancestors and our closest extinct cousins, the Neanderthals and Denisovans. These genomes are veritable time machines and are at the heart of Stéphane Peyrégne’s work, which he decodes to trace the evolution and ancient history of human populations, but also to understand when and how genetic variants associated with certain traits and diseases appeared. His team will thus explore human evolution as a key to better understanding our current biology and health.”
Find here the video portrait and written portrait created by CNRS Biology and the CNRS Foundation.
The Georges Brahms Prize
The Georges Brahms Prize from the CNRS Foundation, created in recognition of Georges Brahms’ legacy, is awarded each year to a researcher in the field of DNA biology. Worth €10,000, this prize aims to support the winner in establishing their career.